STUDENTS at the island's two public senior schools will once again have the opportunity to have their application judged by an internationally-recognised body.

Preparatory work for the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) will be offered to interested students at the Berkeley Institute and Cedarbridge Academy when the new school year begins next month, said Chief Education Officer Joseph Christopher.

"It was a matter that had been discussed among the senior principals and parents who were concerned that the opportunity to sit (an external examination) should be available to their children, so we moved in that direction," he said.

At present, the only schools which offer an internationally-recognised exam to their students are private ones. Previously, public school students were able to sit the General Certification of Education (GCE) examinations, which covered a number of disciplines including mathematics, languages and the various sciences.

The GCE was removed from the curriculum a few years ago however, leaving only the locally-written Bermuda School Certificate (BSC) to determine the level of students' academic success or failure.

In a past interview with the Mid-Ocean News, a former Education Ministry employee said she felt the decision to remove the GCE was made based on its perceived exclusive attributes.

"I believe that there was some concern for the philosophy of education at the time and the philosophy of the older exams, such as the GCE," said Julie Dunstan. "The philosophy at the Ministry at that time, was education for all. They wanted to establish an inclusive system and it was felt that the old GCEs were exclusive in nature.

"However, the current GCSE and some of the external exams offered today are are less dependent on one single exam (as the GCE was). Because there is some coursework component involved, they're considered less exclusive."

The schools selected two boards - Ed. Excel, which is the former London Board, and AQA, for exam certification - and training in GCSE instruction began earlier this year, Dr. Christopher said.

"We had some teachers receive training in February and more training has been planned for next year. We plan to start with preparatory training in language arts and mathematics in September of this year and increase the number of options as time goes on."

The first candidates should be eligible to sit the exams in 2005. The BSC will remain a part of the senior school curriculum, Dr. Christopher added.

"All we're doing is giving an additional opportunity to our students."